reporting-services - Edit expression of an occluded textbox

Question

I have two textboxes on exactly the same location. I want to edit the expression on the textbox behind the front one without bringing the textbox to front. Right-click -> expression always picks the front textbox.

I can select the textbox fine using either document outline or report properties but I cannot figure out how to trigger the expression editor without rightclicking. Expression is also missing from the properties section which apparently is new "feature" in SSRS 2008 R2.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Select the textbox via the Properties window. At the top, you can click Property Pages which opens a dialogue box for entering properties. You can activate the expression editor there from beside the Value property.

Answer 2

I think your only option in that scenario is to directly edit the report code. As you have noted, the only way to launch the expression editor for a textbox is to right-click on it.

Taking a step back though, why do you need two textboxes overlaying one another? Could you replace this with a single textbox and use expression logic to alter the value and formatting instead?